In the age of increasing digitization, it has become increasingly important for Germany to prepare the young generation accordingly. And not just prepare them as consumers but also with a background understanding and the possibility of actively shaping the digitized world.
"Improving the world with code" – with this motto, "Jugend hackt" has made possible youth hackathons since 2013 and workshops for beginner programmers since 2017. Hundreds of boys and girls in all of Germany tinker around and program in these events. They develop their own project ideas and, based on their individual interests, come together into teams that independently work on their own ideas.
Both creative and useful
The teams develop exciting projects such as the sensor-equipped clothespin, the welding accessories case, a discussion and decision-making platform for students, an app that locates radio masts, and software that helps students to manage canceled school lessons and therefore make better use of their free time instead of having to make up missed time at school.
Anyone who wishes to have tips for the next step in a project or requires special knowledge, e.g. on a particular language, can count on the support of many volunteer mentors. The mentors are adult experts—such as employed software developers, designers, or IT students—who voluntarily dedicate their weekend to Jugend hackt. They bring to the table a huge breadth of expert knowledge and can assist the youth in various matters, whether it is programming languages, project management skills, or maker tricks.
More than just programming
The important thing for Jugend hackt's self-image is that it's also about social responsibility in addition to IT and technology. The youth can develop awareness of the creative possibilities and thus, the responsibility that coding holds. Events have a content-related motto such as "true or false?" or "the limits are in your mind". In their coding breaks, the youth can visit a framework program with keynote speeches and inform themselves and discuss current topics such as "algorithms and ethics" or "open data".
The initiative
Jugend hackt is a non-profit funding program for boys and girls between 12 to 18 years of age with an enthusiasm for programming. It is organized by Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland e.V. and mediale pfade.org – ein Verein für Medienbildung. This program is carried out based on the belief that our society depends on the social ideas and technical abilities of the youth in order to democratically shape the transition into the digital age.
This year, several events in which youth can practically experiment will once again take place scattered throughout all of Germany, At adesso insurance solutions, we once again see a great opportunity in this initiative to prepare our young generation for programming and IT in general. This is why this year we are sponsoring Jugend hackt in Cologne from March 11-13 and the main event in Berlin at the end of the year.
